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Sun 20 Jun, 2010 07:17 am
It didn’t faze us as far as our prevailing attitudes about our dealings with the oil-rich regions of the Middle East – that whole pesky episode with crazed Muslims using hijacked airplanes to murder 3000 of our countrymen, with some saying that part of their motivation was US presence in their backyards.
This latest little round of messiness in the Gulf of Mexico won’t faze us as far as our attitudes and practices related to consumption of petroleum, after all is said and done. No appeals to our better judgment, couched in dire doomsday language about limited supplies of fossil fuels, or what burning them does to our planet and atmosphere, or any other damn thing is going to shake us. No. Hell-to-the-NAW. Because we are some genuine, 100%, wild-eyed, crazy oil suckin’ mofos.
I’ve been listening to the heartfelt arguments of many journalists and pundits. They are saying that Obama should take this latest, greatest fiasco in the Gulf and parlay it – the way FDR did with the New Deal; and LBJ did with Civil Rights – and make some real believers out of congress and the nation and pass some breathtakingly sweeping clean energy legislation.
They’re saying that maybe, maybe NOW people will be willing to make some real sacrifices that begin to turn us from the inevitable failure that lies in the way of continuing our unabated chase after and consumption of that good ole’ “black gold”. Huh-uh!! No-sirree. Because we seem to be unable to think beyond our next gas-guzzlin’ trip to the Mickey-D’s to get our hands our the next ammonia-soaked big-carbon-footprinted cowburger.
So, I am just so pessimistic, I guess it’s fair to say. I really think that we are just too damn stupid and crazy to keep greed from being the downfall of this nation that, all things considered, I think is the best in the world. And it makes me damn sad to say it.
@snood,
In essence, I agree, snood. But the tragedy that is the gulf has yet to hit all the way home. If a hurricane sweeps much of that oil and the other chemicals involved across a broad enough area, it won't be just the water and shore line that gets damaged. So, I think it may be the result of one 'plague' after another, modeled after the story of Moses, that finally forces meaningful change.
@edgarblythe,
edgarblythe wrote:
In essence, I agree, snood. But the tragedy that is the gulf has yet to hit all the way home. If a hurricane sweeps much of that oil and the other chemicals involved across a broad enough area, it won't be just the water and shore line that gets damaged. So, I think it may be the result of one 'plague' after another, modeled after the story of Moses, that finally forces meaningful change.
I agree with you that there will be more 'plagues' related to oil consumption, but not that they will bring about any meaningful change. Concerning that, I'm afraid my optimism, which can be quite stubborn and determined, fails me.
@snood,
I am in 100% agreement snood. Americans only 'care' about this spill until they are asked to stop using oil or to pay a little more for it.
I'm singing in this choir too, Snood.
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